Details of an alleged conspiracy by UK intelligence services to hamper a murder investigation have emerged following the release of a secret police report describing how MI5 concealed evidence detailing the murder of a Belfast teenager.

In what became one of
the most sensitive murder cases of the Troubles, 17-year-old
Michael Tighe was gunned down by Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)
forces in Lurgan, Belfast, in the early 1980s. He was unarmed at
the time.

After evidence of Tighe’s murder was destroyed, Northern
Ireland’s Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) demanded the
Police Service of Northern Ireland’s (PSNI) Chief Constable and
Police Ombudsman launch a probe into the alleged concealment and
destruction of an audio recording relating to the teenager’s
death.

Samson suggested, however, the most junior intelligence officer
who allegedly destroyed the tape be offered immunity in exchange
for testifying against his high-ranking colleagues.

The West Yorkshire Chief
Constable also recommended three police chiefs be charged for
conspiring to obstruct the course of justice.

Despite this fact, no charges were brought against any of the
police officers. In a formal statement, then-Attorney General Sir
Patrick Mayhew argued bringing them to trial was not in the
national interest.

Mayhew failed to make any mention of MI5, however. MPs later
insisted his rhetoric indicated the government had called for
only police officials to be charged.

Sampson’s report was obscured from public knowledge for three
decades. But key parts of it were submitted to Belfast’s Court of
Appeal after a man who survived the same RUC shooting had a
conviction overturned. He had been prosecuted for possessing
firearms.

The man in question, Martin McCauley, had his case referred to
the Appeal Court by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The
body is responsible for examining miscarriages of justice in
Northern Ireland.

The commission is believed to have spoken with people who had
been party to a surveillance recording to discern whether a
warning was issued prior to Tighe’s murder.

After McCauley’s conviction was overturned, Northern Ireland’s
DPP ordered a fresh investigation into the withholding and
destruction of the surveillance recording.

Northern Ireland’s Police Ombudsman is now probing ex-Special
Branch officers’ involvement in the fateful RUC shooting, which
left Tighe dead. The actions of several MI5 officials are being
investigated by Police Scotland.